When you own that piece of land that you return to occasionally. You may wish to construct an off grid dwelling. This is the place to discuss different construction methods, materials, and types. Think straw bale, earth ship, yurt, etc..

Bear with me a little bit here - I will try to keep the background as short as possible.

We have been looking for our homestead for quite a few years, and the search had grown tiresome and frustrating. It was always a Goldilocks scenario - this one too big, that one too small, another too expensive - none were 'just right'! About two years ago, we found a nice 5 acre place that had a footing already in place and the guy had put down floor joists and plywood. Health issues ensued and he was trying to get out of it. We took a run at it and just couldn't quite get there. The cumulative effect of no success led us to stop and give it a rest for a while. After a few weeks, we decided to just go out for a drive in the country. NOT looking for anything. So, at that point, you know what has to happen...we find a "perfect place". Well, actually in about and hour and a half we drove by 3 perfect places. Go figure.

One of them was a little bit more 'perfect' than the others, so we made an offer, they accepted, and we ended up with a nice flat 20 acres. More on that 'flat' later. This is about hay! (Someone remind me to revisit 'flat' sometime soon.)

The place had cattle for many years, which was good that it got some manure back onto the land, but bad because the cattle guy baled at least once and sometimes twice a year - most of which left the property. No organic matter going back to the land. Bad news. So I left it fallow for that first year and just brush hogged a couple times to let the grass recover. There is some good bermuda and fescue pasture, but it turns out there is a LOT of native tall grass prairie grass growing there, too!! The original bison food for millions of years!!

The second year, I brush hogged once in June, then decided would bale it since our 5 year drought had broken and the grass was doing VERY well. Found a guy to bale it for me, and he cut about 16 acres of it. The other 4 is being 'groomed' for all things growing and building - house, barn, workshop, garden beds, orchard, vineyard, etc.

Based on what my neighbors were getting for hay, I was gonna be thrilled with 30 to 40 of the large round bales that are popular in this country. About 2 bales per acre. Depending on who does the baling, they can be from 4 ft diameter to 6 ft or more. At 6 ft, they should be 1,500 lbs, maybe more. Since I have to pay the baler, I put a stop limit to halt when it got to about 50 bales, but I new it would never get there. And I wanted 5 ft bales for handling fewer numbers. We agreed that if it was going over 50 for some reason - which it would not - he would call and we would talk.

So, he was baling while I was out of town for the week. He called and told me he was at 45. I was surprised. Even more when I asked how much more there was and he said he wasn't at the half way point yet, and if I wanted to think about selling them to him, that would be good but he wanted 6 ft bales. I said go ahead and let me think about the extra money. He finished the next morning and called me to say there were 45 5ft bales. And 54 6ft bales..Ouch! I paid him and kept them all !! About 6 bales per acre - the power of organic matter!!

Now - what am I gonna do with 99 bales!!?? Create a new song, maybe...? "99 bales of hay on the ground....99 bales of hay...take one down, roll it around, 98 bales of hay on the ground..."

Our goal is to use lots of hay, manure, food scraps, etc to make a LOT of compost for about 3 acres of market garden beds. Well, we got lots of hay now... Next question is how to manage it? I am too old and frail to roll around 1,500 lbs of hay that has a flat side on the bottom where it has been sitting for a year! I need an implement!!

Which finally, after all this, gets us to the point of this. I am almost done making a round hay bale unroller! These posts will try to document the process. It isn't a new idea - I have seen many variations on the theme and found one I can manage, doesn't cost too much, and even my very casual welding skills should be able to accomplish! Bear in mind - I don't make pretty welds at all, in fact they are downright ugly, but they are so 'overdone' that they don't break. That's good enough for me.

This is the nearly finished tool. The goal is to remove the spreader bar - the red handles at each end connecting to the arms. Spread the arms, push the spikes into the center of the bale, re-install the spreader bar and pull in the unwrap direction to get the hay onto the beds. Cattle farmers use this technique to feed cattle. Cuts the spoilage dramatically over the normal bale feed bunker. We use it for mulch.

I don't have a large pile of leftover 'stuff' laying around, so had to go to the neighborhood big box store and get some 1 1/4 steel pipe. 10 ft long. Turns out, I think it's more cast iron than steel, but it is steel enough to work. Cut the pipes to 7.5 ft long. Need the arms around the bale to be about 4 ft long, then angle toward the middle, leaving 3.5 feet to cross in the middle.

Cut, then weld at about 45 degree angle. Drilled a couple of 3/4" holes 18" from other end of pipe, using a tractor pin to pin together. Welded about 2 feet of chain to the ends - actually messed that up, had to cut it in the middle, add 3 more feet with couplers to adjust the needed length - long enough so the spikes at the other end go around the bale.

The spike is cut on one end and welded to point. Grind the welds to smooth them a little bit.

Welded the spikes to the end of the arms. Not pretty, but strong. I drilled some holes in the spike tube to weld the axle on the inside of the pipe. The axle was just 3' of 3/4" rod, cut in half, with a tractor pin hole drilled in the end. Positioned it inside the spike pipe to the depth needed for the wheel to slide on and be pinned. Used large washers on each side of the wheel hub for spacers. Cheap wheel barrow style wheel with grease fitting and ball bearing sleeve.

Almost looks like what is intended. I think there are about 3 hours in it to this point. Had to stop from time to time to think, and since it was very hot and humid, made an occasional retreat to the food trailer for air conditioning. Food trailer is a project I did some time ago.

Photobucket is crashing on me big time tonight, so will try again later.

Ok, so there is still one thing missing at this point - yeah, I knew it had to be there, and was in process of being built. A spreader bar to hold the arms in fixed position. Pulling the chain at the front end puts a lot of pressure on the bars to hold them in the bale, but as the bales are moved, the flat sides that form on round bales create 'slack' conditions at some point during rotation. This releases tension on the arms/spikes and they can fall out. Still,... I had to try it a little bit just to see how it was doing. Works well, and as expected.

I use a tractor with a brush hog attached now just because that is what I have. I hope this works...it's grainy due to compression to get it to fit. And it is running at 2X speed - I was driving slower to keep it from falling apart.

Stuart helped me straighten out posting pictures and I have that working well. I tried to put a video here of the thing unrolling but haven't figured that one out yet. Will put it on when I can. In the meantime, will just put some pics up.

When spikes are stuffed into the center of the bale, pull. This picture shows it installed to pull so that it stays wrapped up. To unroll, the thing will be on the other side of the bale.

First thing to be mulched is a short line of grapevines about 100 ft long. Unroller is reversed, and has started unwrapping a few feet of hay. The plastic wrap was cut and is removed after the bale is moved.

100 ft later. Left the remaining bale at the end of the row - can finish using a small riding mower that is more maneuverable for the space available.

This is the second spreader bar. Since bales are 4 ft wide, I originally started with a 4 ft long angle iron. Drilled a couple of holes 3/4" from each end. Turns out that extra 1" or so made the difference between working or not. Bought a 6 ft piece of angle, drilled 3 holes at 4', 4' 2", and 4' 4" to have some flexibility.

Have not had the chance to try it yet - other stuff gets in the way. Will cover the garden beds for fall.

Same day as the unrolling test, I was experimenting with a tarp covered with hay as a sun block and water exclusion method. The idea is to kill all the plants in area under the tarp. Wooden stakes were used to tie it all down. While driving a couple dozen stakes, the hammer slipped a few times, tapping the thumb holding the stake. Hard enough to break the third bone.

Gonna do things a little differently next time...

The Med center Dr was not happy with me, but being the muley, pig-headed, Okie that I am - and really needing to not have a cast, I am using a brace. Works ok, but definitely have to be very careful about what I do with that hand. Mostly left handed, so it's fine. I have a new appreciation for that old saying about "busy as a one armed paper hanger..."

I will be taking a few more pics to complete my collection of the build, so there may be a few additions. Still want to get the video working.... Will add thoughts about the use of the thing once I have some more experience. I have 99 bales to work with.

This isn't very detailed either, but if anyone has questions about details, I will try to answer.

Cool the way your invention works. I had wondered what people did with those "hay balls" and now I know.

Though I've sworn off such things, I have a favorite spot to whack my left thumb that looks to be the mirror image of your spot . I've done the cast thing a couple of times and they are a PITA so I agree with your choice of the splint as long as you are careful to let things heal.

Have been using photobucket/tinypic for photos for several years and when I started this thread it seemed very cumbersome to deal with...more - a pain in the butt! They always had lots of ads, but they seemed to just surround me and try to get attention. Last few times I have tried to use it, they are just blowing up the screen to the point it is no longer worth using as "free" service. Which leaves me looking at pay services. Since I really hate 'change', especially with stuff like this, I am gonna take my time choosing the next place to put my pics. And after they have become so obnoxious, I won't do their pay version, either....am just occasionally contrary like that.

After looking around some, I am currently inclined to go with smugmug. They seem to be fairly straightforward to use. Does anyone have any input? Comments, etc about either smugmug or another pay photo site, either good or bad ?? I appreciate any input you all may feel inclined to give!